Software and hardware testing personnel are challenged with reducing testing time and expense. Testing and quality assurance personnel are also faced with finding ways and methods to improve testing accuracy, ensure software and hardware quality and to ensure compatibility of software and hardware with other products or systems. Software and hardware testing may test a product in a complex environment, such as a complex multi-faceted network, in order to simulate actual product usage and performance.
Testing hardware or software in a network environment may require multiple components as well as significant configuration of hardware, software and network resources. Testing hardware or software for a network service provider, a network operator, or a network owner may require testing not only of hardware and software owned by a network service provider, but also hardware and software owned by a user. This may greatly increase the types, manufacturers, models and versions of software and hardware required to be tested. Additionally, hardware and software may vary for each type of network service offered. A service provider may be under pressure to rush to support the latest hardware, software, update, upgrades and other components used by clients or other network users. The challenge to accurately test an increasing number of complex configurations while ensuring the accuracy and thoroughness of the testing may be significant.